EXPANDING the power, playbook, and professionalism of local government organs such as Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) serves to firm up democracy on the ground, networks the grassroots arena into a cohesive national interface between the governance structure and citizens, and opens a wide avenue for Guyanese to use their local government office as a platform to contribute individual talents, skills, ideas, and human resource assets to the nation.

The integrity of a democratic country comes wrapped up in citizen participation, not only in exercising their voting franchise to cast their ballots on elections day in free and fair elections, but also to contribute whatever positive, constructive effort and energy and enlightenment they could to the fruitful functioning of the Guyanese society, and to use their voice for the public good. Every hand on deck makes building the nation a smoother process.

The best platform for Guyanese to walk in off the street and add their value and worth as interested and invested, empowered, free-thinking citizens to the nation is at their NDC front office. While central government looks after the macro picture, providing the big vision and national-policy paradigm for how the society works, and regional governments take care of a wide swath of collective communities, the NDC intimately interacts with Guyanese, directly and face-to-face, looking at only the one village or town, the one community — a singular focus. This relationship offers much opportunity for authentic engagement, trust-building, and a two-way flow of heart-to-heart communication. Although ministers of the government, and even President Ali, spend a lot of time interfacing with ordinary citizens all across the country, managing a modern country is not an easy state of play. Ministers see a lot of demand on their time and energy, which impacts on their ability to socialise and listen to every concern of every citizen. Yet, every Guyanese wants to be heard and understood, and to know that the system is open to their concerns.

The structure of the NDC system is a significant, important, and beautiful pathway for citizens to feel they are vital in the overall schematic of how their country operates; that at any time they could show up at the doorstep of the local government office and become a powerful element in the unfolding of the democratic fabric as real socioeconomic development happens; that they played their part with direct involvement.

Such interest from ordinary Guyanese in their communities would see citizens become deeply invested in their surroundings, standing up, for example, against anything that would damage the public good. NDCs are perfect conduit points between the powers that be at Parliament, and the people who work the land with dedicated toil, building homes and raising families, and holding down jobs and serving their country with patriotic hearts. NDCs offer the nation a golden gateway to connect with every Guyanese with openness and care for whatever is the individual concern, and to generate solutions that bring satisfaction, goodwill, and community togetherness.

In other words, NDCs function as not just political organs of political parties, but as genuine citizen engagement forums within the body politic, reaching out to the needs and concerns of every Guyanese. In fact, such a playground would cause local government elections to become an exciting showcase for whichever national political outfit shows more interest, intelligence, and integrity in taking care of the concerns of citizens, one-on-one and face-to- face, as voters would gravitate to the party of the NDC governments that demonstrated most care for their welfare. In evolving the ever-widening horizon of Guyana’s possibilities, the nation would do well to ensure that every Guyanese from every corner of their country could play a direct role in cultivating a national playbook of confident engagement, individual empowerment, and enlightening involvement in the development process. The NDC structure offers the perfect platform for such citizen participation.